The Society for the Study of Religion - HARSHBARGER LECTURE SERIES

WHAT RELIGIOUS PEOPLE THINK ABOUT SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS THINK ABOUT RELIGION

What do religious people think about science? Based on five years of data collection Ecklund will tell us the real story of the relationship between science and religion in American culture, one that is more nuanced and complex than the media and pundits would lead us to believe.

Tuesday, March 27

Alumni Lounge at the Nittany Lion Inn

7:00 - 8:30 p.m.

ABOUT ELAINE ECKLUND

Elaine Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology, Rice University

Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology, and founding director of The Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University, where she is also a scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Ecklund’s research uses social scientific methods to explore the public relationship between science and religion. Specifically, she has most recently studied how scientists in eight different nations understand religion and spirituality. To that end, Ecklund launched the Network for the Social Scientific Study of Science and Religion (N4SR) in 2011. In addition, through a cooperative project with the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion program, she has studied how four different U.S. religious groups understand science.

Ecklund is the author of four books, and over sixty research articles, as well as numerous op-eds. Her latest book is Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think (with Christopher P. Scheitle, Oxford University Press, 2017). She has received grants and awards from organizations including the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Templeton World Charity Foundation, and Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Her work has been cited over 3,000 times by national and international media outlets. In 2013 she received the Rice University Duncan Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Teaching. In 2018 she will give the Gifford lecture in Scotland.

CO-SPONSORED BY

The Humanities Institute, The Rock Ethics Institute, and The Department of Sociology

The Harshbarger Lecture in Religious Studies is an annual lectureship made possible by a generous donation in honor of Luther H. Harshbarger, former professor and head of the Religious Studies Department at Penn State.